


Small Thing

by Rainbowraptor



Series: ZADR Week [1]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 00:35:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21485443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainbowraptor/pseuds/Rainbowraptor
Summary: Ficlet for ZADR event. The prompt? Smeets. That's it, that's all the details you get.
Relationships: Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Series: ZADR Week [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1561078
Comments: 3
Kudos: 99





	Small Thing

"You aren't holding her right." Zim hissed and took their freshly emerged smeet from Dib's arms. "Don't you have any knowledge about smeet rearing in your big head?" He hissed. “You should be wearing gloves!”

Dib frowned, eyes rolling. "Sorry, my experience about being a dad is really sparse. Yeah, ok, enlighten me then. How should I hold our daughter?" He leaned his human butt against Zim's autopsy table, wiped his sticky hands on his coat, folded his arms, and rested, legs crossed, one eyebrow raised.

Zim glared at Dib for one more, very, very long second. He judged his Dibmate, this beast dressed in a black lab coat, jeans, and boots that were, Zim realized, filthy. He eyed Dib's hair, a thick mess where it wasn't buzzed, still ridiculous after all these years. Zim pondered for the billionth time why the human was attractive to him. Alright, so, Zim _ was _pleased that Dib had let an acceptable amount of stubble to grow on his chin and jawline, the prickles felt nice against his irken skin.

Zim looked at their smeet, holding her close, licking the remaining vat fluid from her tiny, pale green skin body. After, Zim leaned down, eyes searching over her, triple checking that the Computer's scans had been accurate, allowing his feelers to gently brush her own, coaxing them to unfurl and twitch with his.

She looked like a rather pale green irken but there were little things that were different about her. Some were obvious, Zim found five toes and fingers, while others couldn't be seen by normal, un-implanted eyes, like how her flesh was actually water tolerant and, aside from an allergy to peanuts and milk, she could eat any Earth food.

Dib laughed. "Holy shit."

Zim glared at him. "Our smeet is not-"

"No, no, Spaceman, that's the longest you've ever gone without speaking."

Zim opened his mouth to reply but saw their daughter opening her eyes. 

They had decided, after the long, seemingly endless battle against the Tallest, that she would have features like both Zim and Dib, no question. Zim was, of course, superior, but Dib's human nature did have _ some _ perks if they were going to make a life together on Earth.

Becoming allies, mates and, later, even married didn’t mean they wouldn’t fight. Zim and Dib warred over what to include and what to leave out in their daughter. There had been nights where Zim had refused to share the bed with Dib, instead choosing to stay in his lab to work on new smeet "toys", resulting in a rather completely normal outbreak of plush moths and days where Dib "forgot" to clean up his various conspiracy boards, leaving tacks and rubber bands everywhere.

Despite this, there were two things they easily agreed on.

When their daughter opened her eyes, Zim and Dib saw that the brilliant blue they had picked together in the lab. Her eyes were the exact same shade of blue as the very best SIR unit there was and, Zim swallowed hard, had ever been.

"Gir," whispered Dib, he was close to both Zim and Gir, their daughter, eyes wide. Yes, there was a trace of scientific curiosity in that gaze, but Zim could see something else. Dib was _ really _ seeing their daughter, the result of their partnership, their hard work, their victory, and their, yes, their _ lurv _. His big, yet lacking human brain had finally come to understand. Tears ran down Dib's cheeks. "Oh, she's, she's..."

Zim's own vision was a little blurry but he refused to let Gir see it. "Gir, we are your parents, I'm the superior father, of course but Dib is also your father despite being inferior."

"Fathers?" Gir's eyes were wide and a smile crossed her face, a single tooth in her mouth. She hugged them both. "I love you warm, stinky human and clean irken."

Zim laughed. "Yes, yes, your Dibfather is rather stinky."

Gir squinted those big blue eyes at Dib. "Why don’t you let Zimfather disinfect you?"

Dib didn’t even protest. “She’s so smart already. Gir can talk, and I know we spoke about this and everything, it’s just, she has my nose.”

“Dib, she doesn’t have a nose.” Zim rolled his eyes. “I think you meant she has your big head.”

"My name is Gir?" Gir asked, she was looking around the lab, little limbs already moving, she clearly wanted to roam around but Zim didn't want to let her go just yet. Yes, a large deal of information had been encoded in her PAK, there was still so much Zim and Dib needed to teach her before she could be let loose. Specifically, they needed to put the finishing touches on her human disguise. If she was anything like her namesake, chances were high she would find a way to escape to explore the outside world as soon as she was able.

"Gir, yes, I _am_ Gir. What does it mean?" She asked. "'Cuz I don't know." Those big blue irken eyes stared up at them. “Do you?”

Dib looked at Zim. "Ok, ok, I'm ready, let me hold her."

Zim frowned but handed Gir over, the tears were overwhelming now, it had to be Dib's stink, and he needed to go and clean his eyes out.

As he walked to the eye rinse station, he heard Dib telling the story of GIR.

"Before you were born, your father and I had, um, another smeet, but this one was a little robot named Gir. He did something very brave and helped save Earth. It's because of him that we were able to make you. So we named you after him.”

When Zim returned, Dib was sitting on the exam table, shockingly still holding Gir the right way. His voice was now in a whisper as he told the story, about the battles, all leading up to that moment when GIR had thrown himself into the Tallests’ engines, setting off the explosion and a chain reaction which took down the whole Irken Armada, including the Control Brains.

All the while Gir looked up to Dib in wonder, excitement, and love. Every once in a while she'd interupt to ask a question "How many ships did they have? What did you and Zim father eat after they destroyed the Bloaty's Pizzeria?"

Zim sat beside Dib and listened, his head resting on Dib’s shoulder for a brief moment before he sat up, like the Invader he'd been. "G...ir." No, no, he wasn't going to leave to cry and sulk, this was very important. 

"Maybe this was a mistake, the name-." Dib said.

"No!" Zim shouted. "Zim doesn't make mistakes! Well, Zim does and that's ok," he glanced at Dib. "But this isn't one of them!"

Zim fixed his gaze on their little smeet. "Gir, we named you after your...your older brother because he saved the planet. He was brave and we...we miss him. But we don't expect you to _be_ him. You understand? The way he...he died was such that" Zim paused, yes, Gir wasn't a full Irken so she wouldn't be taught... brainwashed...prepared for the gritty details of life just yet but Zim wasn't about to shelter her completely, "eh , you see, there was nothing left of GIR after. When the war was over and we settled..."

He took Dib's hand in his claws, not for comfort but just to make sure Dib was ok. He looked a little paler than usual. "We wanted to carry on our genes in this better environment and I...well,"

Gir waited.

Zim recalled, searching in the rubble for months, then his own old base, and even the taco place. It had been exhausting given his changed PAK and Dib had helped him through it all, just to find one small piece of GIR.

Yet they had failed.

Zim hated failure.

"No one that great and amazing should be deactivated." Zim said. "So we gave you his eye color because humans call them 'Windows to the soul' and we gave you his name to honor him. Do you understand?"

Gir was little, tiny right now. Zim hopped she would eventually grow tall like his Dib, he hoped that she would remain smart and fast, and cunning like Zim. But right now, she was so, so very short and looked fragile. 

"I'm not Gir." Said Gir. Her big eyes were narrowed and she was frowning. Yet, her tounge stuck out the side of her mouth just like Dib's. "I don't want to be my brother so I'm not gonna." Her frowned deepened She was thinking.

Despite this rebellion, Zim felt a swell of pride.

"Who are you then?" Dib asked.

"I'm Grr." She laughed. She drew out the 'r' sound. "I am Grr." 

Zim and Dib shared a look and both laughed. 

"Grr then, you are Grr." Zim said, nuzzling their smeet. It was a little change, a small thing, but it worked. 


End file.
